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Okay, I'm going to show you how to actually access eBooks through MSU
library's 2 different catalogs, hopefully in the same video.
So using the question from the English603, week 8,
question 8
as an example, we are supposed to find a
'More Compact Encyclopedia of People and Movements Important to the African
Diaspora in the United States"
In reference to Harner Code Q3714
and we are supposed to present the conclusion of an entry about the art of
August Wilson.
So for this particular item we look at Harner Code Q3714,
we read the whole thing, find out that the more compact encyclopedia
is actually the 'Oxford Companion to African American Literature'
and not the actual Q3714
which is the 'Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History'.
So let's actually look at the catalog And see if we can find the 'Oxford
Companion'.
So, starting off on the Library's Home Page
you'll notice that we have the option here to search WorldCat for books,
articles, DVDs, etc., etc.
What we want to do actually is jump over here to online items.
So by searching online items we only search eBooks and a certain amount of web
Content.
So it really cuts out all the extra, you know, print books and articles and
stuff like that that we're not actually looking for. So I'm going to type in the title,
or paste-in, technically, the title of the item we're looking for which is
the 'Oxford Companion to African American Literature.' Let's search.
Now, we have our search results. You'll notice here at the top it is
exactly what we're looking for the 'Oxford Companion to African American
Literature."
You'll notice right here it is an eBook. And this particular one is from '97
but it is what we have at our library.
We can compare this to the "Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature"
From 2001 which is a WorldCat Library
item so this is not something that we actually have access to at this point.
So for this entry this is what we Want. We're going to click here to actually
look at their catalog entry for it.
So this catalog entry will provide you all the basic citation info for the item
and then links to the actual online item.
So here we have our 2 main ways to access it:
"Find A Copy Online" and "Find A Copy in the Library."
If we have it in print it would give details here but of course we're looking
for the electronic version of it which, this is exactly what it is telling
us, is that
it exists in that form. So we come over here, 'Find An Online Copy",
and here we have links to this item. Now, one thing to keep in mind, 'links' is
usually the key word you want to find. What is the link to the actual item?
So we click here to actually link to it.
So the link in our catalog brings us to NetLibrary which is the database that
actually houses the eBook.
At this point you've probably, if your off-campus, gone through the
authentication process where you
Put in your MSU ID and email
password.
So now we should be able to access the eBook by clicking right here, "View This EBook".
I do have to warn you that if at any point
while you're researching and you come across an eBook you may get a message
saying that you are not allowed to access it
because someone else is actually viewing it just FYI. Many of our eBooks,
only one person is allowed to view it at a time.
So sometimes you get an error message. That's usually what it is if you wait a
few minutes or a half an hour or so you'll usually be able to access it
fairly easily then.
So here we have the eBook. This is essentially a digitized book so if you
notice you can go page by page
through the eBook,
which I will NOT do at this time.
Over here are our table of contents. We come over here, this is the actual
portion that we're interested in, the main meat of this eBook.
So I believe the question asks for information about August Wilson, we
can come over here to the W's.
Now let's head down to Wilson,
August.
And somewhere in here is the answer to our question.
You'll notice we are on page 781
And, yes, clicking to the next page will bring us to, hopefully, 782.
Yes.
I have actually noticed that many people don't realize that they can just click
through to flip the pages of the eBook.
So that is essentially how you can access an eBook through WorldCat.
I will now show how to do it through our Classic Catalog.
So now that we're back on the Library Home Page
you'll notice here, again, is where we went to search WorldCat for on-line itmes.
In contrast, we have our Classic Catalog which will search only our material.
Okay, now I will do a quick search by putting in the title of the item we're
looking for.
Make sure this actually is set to 'Title'
and I will change the material to 'eBook'
and search.
So here is our catalog entry for this particular title. Again, at the top we
have our citation info. You'll notice down here, this is usually where we
have our holdings information if it were in print.
But you don't want to click here for the electronic book. This isn't the actual
link to the item it just tells you about electronic books.
Again, the magic word is 'links' so here's the
content citation info and here is the link to the actual item.
And this will probably look familiar.
This link has us directly into NetLibrary again.
So these are just the 2 most